Category: Christmas

22/12/16

22/12/2016

What a magical week it has been! After the buzz of last week's play we where on a great high on Monday. We were looking forward to enjoying our last few days of this term and that is exactly what we did!

Revising our patterns was fun... the children are getting really creative in how they visualise their patterns, introducing all sorts of new dimensions!

We had a special visit from the Sam Maguire Cup!!

We introduced a new present wrapping station to our Aistear. Everyone is getting so good at making decorative cup cakes too! I was very impressed.

Mini Christmas Dinner!

This week we were discussing food. What started off as a conversation about Brussel Sprouts... turned into an idea for a food tasting lesson... but it turned into something far more magical and I think I can say that this is the cutest thing I have ever done with a class. Our very own mini Christmas dinner. It was so much fun!

Preparation:

discussing the menu
peeling the sprouts
laying the table
folding napkins
heating the plates
tastying up the sprouts
Serving up a feast!

On the menu... turkey, mashed potatoes, brussel sprouts and cranberry sauce!

IMG 5227 from Zara Murray on Vimeo.

Dessert of Plum pudding, mince pies and custard... wasn't quite as successful! LOL

IMG 5234 from Zara Murray on Vimeo.

A very special visit to the nativity. We are all excited to welcome baby Jesus and celebrate his birthday on Christmas day!

IMG 5202 from Zara Murray on Vimeo.

Great homework this week!

It was lovely to get the children to chat with their family about favorite foods and have them come back in and share what they learnt with their peers! It's hard to catch a moment to sit and talk in the craziness of family life so I thought that it would be a nice little project and we will do it again. Lovely to see so many Brussel sprout lovers out there!!

I can't believe that we are already half way through the year! and what a fantastic year it has been so far! Thank you to all the parents who have been so encouraging and supportive, it makes my job so much more enjoyable! Also a big thank you for the beautiful cards with such kind words and lovely presents. I hope you all have your own little gift safe under the Christmas trees for unwrapping on Christmas morning. The boys and girls are very excited to have something to give you. And on that note... I will sign off to enjoy the holidays myself and leave you with a very special video to enjoy and share with your family and friends... Have a fantastic holiday everyone and see you all in the new year.

Stay Safe,

Ms Murray

Christmas Concert Final Cut from Zara Murray on Vimeo.

2 Comments

Friday 16th December

16/12/2016

6 Comments

What a fantastic week! After all our hard work I think you'll agree we provided all the moms and dads with a great performance on Thursday. I hope you all enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed our moment on stage! And a BIG thank you to for dressing them so wonderfully... they really looked every bit the part!
If anyone has any video or photos, if you wouldn't mind sharing them with me that would be great. I will collect them and put together a little video of the day for your enjoyment.

As we spent a lot of this week rehearsing, this week's blog will be short and sweet! Our Christmas theme is continuing to provide the children with endless fun and excitement. This week we have been focusing on pre planning our Aistear time. Before each play session we discuss all the play areas that are available to us and what kind of language we might use there and how we might role play. Each child has their own Aistear copy where we plan for 10/15 minutes (through drawing) before heading off to play.
During the children’s play I get a chance to sit with each child individually and discuss their plan and record their words and sentences on their drawing. What we discuss might include topical language, colours, shapes, sentence structure etc. It's a great chance to spend a few minutes with each child on their own.

IMG 4956 from Zara Murray on Vimeo.

Another week of great homework! Well done everyone... Look at this wonderful homemade maraca which one of the boys made after being inspired by his homework reader! What a clever boy. FANTASTIC. Enjoy our little rendition of this week's homework poem.

Five Little Caterpillars from Zara Murray on Vimeo.

I hope all the girls and boys have a well deserved rest this weekend. I am really looking forward to next week. It will be a lovely fun week in the lead up to the holidays.

Happy Weekend,

Ms Murray

6 Comments

Friday 9th December

9/12/2016

4 Comments

Santa's Wonderland has arrived in room 5!

IMG 4766 from Zara Murray on Vimeo.

We have been working really hard at our letter formation this week! Our focus was numbers 1-3.

As we continue to learn our letter sounds and blending them into words it is important that we also continue to reinforce our rhyme. The chilrden are getting so good at hearing the sounds in the words.

Letter Matching

Working on our Christmas words. First we listen to the sounds and syllables in the words and then cut and stick them into our copies.

If we want to be good workers in Santa's Toy shop we need to learn all about tools and toys! We've been doing lots of research, making collages of our favorite toys and learning about what they are made of... wood, plastic, foam, metal, fabric etc.

Picking our favourite toys from magazines and sorting them. from Zara Murray on Vimeo.

CONGRATULATIONS to the Santa's Hepers graduates of 2016!

Below we sorted our own toys into sets according to what they are made of. Then we choose from our selection of work tools to practice fixing the toys. You'll be delighted to know that following a week's intensive training, they all passed their Santa's Little Helpers exam and are now elegable to work in Santa's Workshop.

Electric drill on fabric toys.

Nail gun on plastic dolls.

Electric saw on wooden doll house.

While it is always great to learn through play and fun. Sometimes we need quiet, focus and 100% concentration. I think you'll agree that you could hear a pin drop during our writing practice. Also I notice that everyone has a great pencil grip! Well done boys and girls... your parents would be super proud of how hard you all work. I know I am! I love the 'silent' self congratulating clap towards the end! lol

Quiet Writing Practice from Zara Murray on Vimeo.

Thanks again to everyone who brought in decorations! The classroom really looks amazing. Next week is our Christmas Concert (We're on Thursday) looking forward to seeing everyone there. The children have been rehersing very hard!
WANTED FOR CHRISTMAS CONCERT - If anyone has any disposable tin plates like the ones below I would be grateful if they could bring them in on Monday.

Thanks for all the lovely comments over the past blogs, it's always good to get feedback from you and the children. I hope you enjoy the lovely message below we got from Brian in the Philippeans. It's a great opportunity for the children to learn about other countries and climates in the world.

Have a great weekend everyone, stay safe!

Regards,
Ms Murray

P.s. Congratulations to the winners of the Website Launch Raffle! Click here to see the results.

4 Comments

2nd December 2016

2/12/2016

8 Comments

This week we did lots of art in preparation for Christmas. We made lots of decorations to hang around the room and the children decided that they wanted to turn our special corner into Santa's Sledge! What a great idea! So big thank you to our caretakers Tom and Joe for helping us build it.
If anyone has any old Christmas decorations they would like to donate we would be delighted to add them to our homemade ones.

IMG_4620 from Zara Murray on Vimeo.

Last weeks art...

My Movie 1 from Zara Murray on Vimeo.

Now that the childrens' pencil grip is getting really strong they're getting really good at their colouring, zig zag, curved and straight lines. We are ready now to focus on our number formation of the no.s 1-3. We will not be working on written letter formation until after christmas. The children are really getting the hang of the letter sounds and we continue to pratice lots of rhyme so they can really hear the sounds within words. And of course, we did lots of work on the shape of the week, the square.

What fantastic homework this week! Well done everyone for all your efforts. Enjoy our rendition of this week's homework poem, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

IMG_4631 from Zara Murray on Vimeo.

Finally, it is with great sadness that we say fairwell to our wonderful Ms. O'Brien. She will be greatly missed by me and the children. She did absolutly fantastic work over the last month and we hope she will come back and visit us soon!